[FRIAM] election eve

[Gary Schiltz]

The version I have heard is "If you aren't liberal when you're young, you
don't have a heart. If you aren't conservative when you're old, you don't
have a brain."

On Wed, Nov 4, 2020 at 4:16 PM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> I appreciate this point of view.  In 2016 it seems like there was a lot
> of rhetoric about "vote in your own best self-interest" as a way to try
> to increase turnout or focus on why any individual should take voting
> seriously.
>
> Working at LANL for 27 years I heard *way* too many people there voting
> for War Hawks because it was "good for (nuclear weapons) interest" which
> was good for the lab's/county's budget... etc.
>
> I've never voted for my specific self-interest (supporting school bonds
> because my kids were of school age or against them because I had none or
> they were done with that) but with an idea toward a larger self-interest
> of "what kind of world do I want to live in?"...   which has progressed
> with age from one where perhaps there was a lot of scrappy scrapping
> going on where I could "get ahead" to one where "as few people are under
> acute stress and misery as possible such that everyone (human and
> non-human everyones) rises to be their best selves".   I know this is
> very Pollyanna at some level...   But I so much prefer to ignore my
> baser instincts of "greed and fear" in deference to something a little
> more "enlightened".
>
> I have always been appalled by the admonition "If you are not liberal
> while young and conservative when old, there is something wrong with
> you".   I refactored it to "idealistic while young and practical when
> old".   My *practicality* says that my life is improved by the lives of
> my family, friends, neighbors, and beyond being improved, and as Marcus
> reflects here, that works mainly/only/best for those of us NOT living
> under dire threat of privation of abuse, but I would claim that the bulk
> of that "threat" is an illusion in the first world.   We all have spare
> capacity to "rise above" if we choose to.
>
> - Steve
>
> On 11/4/20 11:54 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> > Nick wrote:
> >
> > < I know two trump supporters quite well.  Mind you, we don't talk
> politics that much.  Both are owners of small businesses who have led the
> highly regulated lives that folks must lead if they are going to make money
> in a politically diverse community.  Both [thought they] saw gains from the
> Tax Cuts.  I think both think the economic policies have been good for them
> and they find the crazy stuff kinda fun.  >
> >
> > Let me just give you my visceral response:   If one is doing ok -- not
> having your neck crushed under the knee of a cop or starving -- then I have
> the expectation that a person persuade on the basis on what is good for
> everyone, not what is good for them.    I don't care how they make money.
>  That is their problem.   I did fine under Bush, Obama, and even Trump.
>  I'm a lucky one.   It would never occur to me to use minor trends up or
> down in my income for a reason why someone should run the most powerful
> democracy in the world.  I find it petty and appalling that people do think
> of making this connection.   Yes, I would cancel them if I had subscribed
> to them, but I never did subscribe to them.
> >
> > Marcus
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